*6 June 2013 * *For Immediate Release* *ICANN Announces Top-Level Executive Changes * *Organizational Shifts to Bolster Operational Effectiveness* *Los Angeles, California… *The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced that *Akram Atallah*, currently Chief Operating Officer (COO), will become division President of the Generic Domains Division, a newly created branch that will focus on generic domain operations, domain name industry engagement and web services for the community. President and Chief Executive Officer Fadi Chehadé said creation of the new division is necessary because ICANN’s new gTLD Program, one of the biggest changes to the Internet since its inception, will see a tremendous increase in scale and responsibility to ensure that ICANN continues to deliver operational excellence. *Susanna Bennett*, an accomplished financial and operational executive in technology services, has been named new COO. She will be charged with continuing to lead the organization’s day-to-day operations while also continuing to improve management operations. Bennett is leaving Jazz Technologies, Inc., where she was the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Human Resources. “Susanna has extensive knowledge of international operational infrastructure, governance and integration in culturally-diverse organizations,” said Chehadé. “She will help improve ICANN’s agility, accountability and visibility, which I discussed during ICANN’s recent meeting in Beijing. She will help us mature and tweak our bottom-up, consensus-driven, multistakeholder model.” Bennett has more than twenty-five years of experience with both public and private companies and has established and managed international operations in Europe, Asia, Australia, South Africa, and South America. Prior to joining Jazz Technologies, Inc. in 2008, Bennett was the CFO Partner for Tatum, LLC where she advised clients in China on acquisition strategies, integration synergies and global market expansion. “It is particularly exciting to partner with the passionate team at ICANN at this time of dramatic international growth,” said Bennett. “The Internet’s impact around the globe is phenomenal and in no small way ICANN’s multi-stakeholder model has effectively framed the Internet’s growth.” Chehadé said both Bennett and Attalah will assume their new positions on July 1 when several other new organizational changes will occur, including: - The creation of a new position to lead Technical & Security Operations. This individual will report directly to the CEO. - *Jamie Hedlund*, currently Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement for North America, will become a special advisor to Chehadé, while continuing leadership of North America government relations. - *Christopher Mondini*, currently Vice President of Business Engagement, will become the Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement for North America and Global Business Engagement. He will assist with ICANN’s overall engagement efforts. - *Nora Abusitta* will become Vice President of Public Responsibility Programs. Abusitta is currently the Senior Director of Inter-Governmental Development. Since officially becoming President and CEO in September of 2012, Chehadé has made it a priority to both internationalize ICANN and to accelerate effective and professional global management. ### To download a high resolution photo of Susanna Bennett, go here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/icann/8971723401/sizes/l/in/photostream/\ To download a high resolution photo of Akram Atallah, go here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/icann/5058190631/sizes/l/in/photolist-8GYxRi-8... *MEDIA CONTACTS: * Brad White Director of Global Media Affairs Washington, DC, USA Tel. +1 202.570.7118 brad.white@icann.org Andrew Robertson Edelman Public Relations London, U.K. Tel. + 44 (7811) 341 945 andrew.Robertson@edelman.com *About ICANN: **ICANN’s mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers. ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: **www.icann.org* <http://www.icann.org/>*.* If you would rather not receive future communications from ICANN, let us know by clicking here.<http://ICANN.pr-optout.com/OptOut.aspx?523509x19831x94634x1x3785396x24000x6&...> ICANN, 12025 Waterfront Drive Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90094 United States